The Center for 2012 Studies is a think-tank dedicated to investigating
how the ancient Maya conceived and thought about the 13-Bak'tun period
ending of December 21, 2012. Evidence from a variety of disciplines
will be assessed. Opinions and statements of scholars and investigators
will be discussed. Links to pertinent academic resources will be provided.

The Center for 2012 Studies is not a place for addressing the
wide spectrum of pop culture manifestations in the "2012 phenomenon"
or the mass media's distortion and abuse of Maya tradition. There are
other places where that has been and can be pursued. Here, I will
provide a clear space for investigating the origins of the Long Count
system and the evidence that 2012 was an intentional artifact of the
early Maya's calendrical cosmology.

*All text and items linked on this page are copyrighted, All World and Translation rights are Reserved. To inquire about replicating and reprinting rights:***the2012story@gmail.com***

To offer feedback, debate, or discussion, on any of the essays, send email to: The2012story@gmail.comwith the subject line "Center for 2012 Studies"

New Book Release, March 2017:

Ivory Tower, House of Cards: How Scholars and Their Publishers Violate Science. ISBN: 978-0-9985868-2-3.
162 pages. Maya Studies, Academic Ethics.
Available at Amazon and Create Space.

This book is a narrative of over two decades of exchanges with scholars, their academic publishers and employers, and the professional association that oversees and validates them. It focuses on recent exchanges, largely in 2015, and documents a series of officially filed error lists and complaints regarding scholarly errors needing correction, and the responses of the publishers, the science agency (NASA), and committees (the AAUP) that are appointed to oversee and uphold academic standards. A bizarre world of contradictions, evasions, bigotry, and sanctioned character assassination is exposed, indicting an elite club of Ivory Tower scholars, friends and colleagues engaged in sloppy research and guild protection whose behavior violates science and threatens their bastion of unethical self-interest with immanent collapse, like a flimsy house of cards.

November 12, 2016. In May of 2016 Maya archaeoastronomer Anthony Aveni published yet another book that critiqued my work and 2012 ideas (his first appeared in 2009). As with his previous book, Aveni's new book (also published by the University Press of Colorado) contained many errors of fact and citation which painted for his readers a distorted and factually wrong picture of my work and background. Last year I requested that similar errors in his 2009 book on the 2012 topic be corrected, but all of the errors I pointed out were denied by both the author and his university press publisher, and when I appealed to the AAUP (the Association of American University Presses), they refused to take any action. It was a clear case of science, scientists, and academic publishing failing to do science and abide by their stated principles of error checking and correction.
This extraordinary situation, along with five other examples involving other scholars and scientists, was documented in my 2015 book Ivory Tower, House of Cards: How Scholars and Their Publishers Violate Science. The new situation, this year, played out differently, for two likely reasons which I discuss in my review. The end result is that this time all the errors I pointed out were duly acknowledged and corrected; the unsold remains of the first printing of Aveni's book Apocalypse Anxiety were pulped, and a corrected second printing and eBook were released in October, 2016. This signals a sea-change victory in correcting the false and inaccurate treatment of my work by "experts" who have misrepresented 2012 and published their factually flawed writings in peer-reviewed academic publications. The attempt to maintain old-school ideas about Maya astronomy, the World Age doctrine of period-ending world-renewal, and the precession of the equinoxes in Mesoamerican thought does not serve progress, nor does it have the support of facts and evidence. The piece is "Hand-wringing in Maya Studies: Approved Corrections to the Second Printing of Anthony Aveni's Apocalypse Anxiety."

A longer version of the piece linked above was written in June of 2016, at a time when it looked like Aveni and his publisher were going to pull the same evasive shenanigans they did the previous year. This piece goes into greater detail, exposing Aveni's various mental prejudices and assumptions, his collaboration with John Hoopes, and is here: "The End of an Error: The Cure for Aveni's Apocalypse Anxiety."

"Chichen Itza Panel 1 and the 3-11 Pik Triple Station." January 23-24, 2015. Several discoveries interface here so that we can understand what the 9th-century Chichen Itza king, K'ak Upakal, was doing with the Caracol observatory, and how he presented himself as a great integrator of opposing cultural and cosmological worldviews --- the higher "third" that unites the dualing two. Panel 1 contains a 3-11 Pik Triple Station (a precession station). I determined this was a galactic alignment date in 870 AD. I also identified Captain Sun Disk and Captain Serpent on the circular plaque, and an eclipse date. Other items come into play, such that my Three Cosmic Center thesis and my interpretation of the cosmological polarity dynamic reconciled at Chichen Itza --- published in my 1998 book Maya Cosmogenesis 2012 --- find solid support. To illustrate this I provide a chapter excerpt from that book.

"Synopsis. The Astronomy of Baktun 13: December 21st, 2012 AD." I like to throw this in for some historical perspective. This one-page synopsis was distributed at the Institute of Maya Studies in 1997-1998, and was sent to scholars along with my invitation to receive my book Maya Cosmogenesis 2012. In concise language, it presents the astronomical aspect of my "2012 alignment theory." The title was also used for my IMS presentation, given at the Miami Museum of Science in August 1997 (see transcription of this presentation below).

Featured Presentations:

"Lord Jaguar and the Astronomy of Tortuguero Monument 6." Presentation at the Insttute of Maya Studies, January 19, 2011. In six parts on Youtube.

Special Offering: "The Astronomy of Baktun 13: December 21st, 2012 AD." Transcription of my presentation at the Institute of Maya Studies on August 20, 1997. With photos, new footnotes, and list of slides. Here we see articulated the early key elements of my pioneering 2012 reconstruction work, echoed much later by other Maya scholars (in their publications of 2011, 2012, and 2015).

"The Birth-Sacrifice Monument."
John Major Jenkins. Posted online July 8, 2011.
An examination of the iconography and setting of a previously undocumented
large carved boulder near the pre-Classic site of Izapa in southern
Chiapas. Explores its relationships with Maya Creation Myth and symbolism at nearby Izapa.
Includes photos of two additional undocumented carved boulders.

Email
exchange with Dr Ed Barnhart, July 2010. This email exchange with
the Director of the Maya Exploration Center resulted from my
SAA presentation in April, 2010 (linked above). It led to the Maya
ExplorationCenter Facebook Discussion in November-December,
2010 (also linked above).

"Review-Essay of Dennis Tedlocks
Book 2000 Years of Mayan Literature (2010)." April 10,
2010. Some have criticized Tedlock's re-languaging of the names of Maya
sites, deities, and temples. Unfortunately, this distracts from his
many compelling observations about Maya astronomy and mythology, which
I focus on in my review-essay. Namely, Tedlock repeatedly demonstrates
that the dark rift in the Milky Way is an important reference point
for ritual events. He also alludes, albeit obliquely and incompletely,
to the era-2012 alignment. He also elaborates on the 2012 perspective
that he and Barbara Tedlock presented at the Tulane "2012"
conference in February 2009.

"Dating the Construction of
the Izapan Ballcourt, and Corrections on the Study of Astronomy in the
Izapan Ballcourt." October 18, 2011. Summary: First,
there is no hard evidence that dates the construction of the Izapan
ballcourt to the Classic Period or post-Classic Period, as insinuated
by the Brigham Young University (BYU) archaeologists who studied the
site. Rather, the C-14 dates that were taken from Mound 125a, which
"adjoins" the ballcourt, are in fact pre-Classic and Middle
pre-Classic. Clarifications of statements made by the BYU archaeologists
are provided, and their assumptions about the original function of the
ballcourt are questioned. Second, misleading statements and citations
that don't check out by one Maya scholar are corrected, regarding the
history of the study of astronomy in the Izapan ballcourt. Third, one
example of academic omission in citing my earlier published work on
Izapan iconography and astronomy is discussed, and corrected.

"A Tripartite Figure from
the Izapa Group F Ballcourt." This essay, written in early
2007 and originally titled "Three Mini-Essays on the Trinary Structure
of Maya Cosmology," explores the tripartite symbolism of a figure
found in the mound at the west end of the Izapa ballcourt. It draws
from the work of Susannah Ekholm and offers a composite image of the
reconstructed figure. The tripartite symbolism is supportive of the
three-level symbolism I have proposed for Izapa (Jenkins 1998), which
is identifiable in the geographical layout around the site (ocean, land,
sky), as well as in the three main monument groups (A, B, and F) with
their respective "cosmic centers" and associated deities.
Two additional notes in this essay explore a tripartite clan structure
in Highland Maya society and the three-level ritual symbolism of metates
and thrones.

"The Comalcalco '2012' Date - an
Academic / Media Rerun." A response to the AP piece of November
2011 in which a purported "discovery" of a second 2012 date
is announced by INAH in Mexico. This piece is designed to concisely
address and clarify the background to this story, which is actually
a rerun of earlier events. November 29, 2011.

"Toward Reconstructing the
Ixil/Quiché Venus Calendar." (Or: How the Dresden Codex
Venus Calendar placement (November 18th, 934 A.D. = 1 Ahau 18 Kayab)
evolved into one possibly used by the Highland Maya of Guatemala.) Here's
one from the archives, folks! Written in 1992, this essay explores an
adjustment mechanism to the predictive Venus Round system evident in
th Dresden Codex  a possible and putative one-time shift around
1246 AD among one or more Maya groups in Highland
Guatemala, achieving: 1) a corrective recalibration of the predictive
system with actual Venus risings, and 2) a coordination of the Venus
Round beginning date with the Calendar Round beginning date. This essay
is also revealing of my knowledge-base and the level of work I was doing
twenty years ago, when I declined to pursue a course of Guaranteed Student
Debt by attending the University of Colorado at Boulder (where I had
been accepted as a 27-year-old non-traditional student). I do not regret
that decision. May 1992.

"A Reassessment of Date Ambiguities on Tortuguero
Monument 2." March 2, 2012. Deciphering dates in Maya inscriptions
often requires accepting "scribal errors." The previously
proposed date decipherment for Tortuguero Monument 2 requires one, but
additional data in the text suggests that another date is indicated,
one that points us to Lord Jaguar's birthday in 612 AD.
Further examination of Monument 2 in the Carlos Pellicer Museum may
resolve the issue.

"Further Investigations on Tortuguero Monument 2." March 5, 2012. Given the ambiguous data that can result in several possible date interpretations, attention goes to a way to possibly resolve the ambiguity. The roughly drawn glyphs on the dorsal side are explored here, and a suggestion is made for a field trip to the Carlos Pellicer Museum to try, for the first time in decades, to make a clear assessment of those glyphs. If a DN or some positional data can be rescued, we may be able to clarify the date on the ventral side.

"Sun and Moon at the Cosmic Crossroads in an Inscription from Palenque Temple XIX." March 22, 2012. The inscription on the stucco pier in Palenque Temple XIX contains three dates. Examining the astronomy reveals that the reason why a 5-Tun interval is used probably involves a lunar sidereal-cycle interval. Furthermore, the astronomy associated with the dates indicts the Crossroads of the Milky Way and the ecliptic and the sun's alignment with the Sagittarian Crossroads on 9.14.0.0.0. Additional 5-Tun dates from Tonina are examined that involve the changing declination of the moon as it sweeps by the Pleiades, occasionally occulting the Pleiades (and actually doing so in one date example) and thereby suggesting a methodology by which the ancient Maya may have tracked, or checked for, eclipses. Astronomy charts are provided.

"18 Rabbit's Sacrifice, Bolon Yokte', and the Associated Astronomy." In my examination of the three dates from the Palenque Temple XIX stucco pier (see the essay above), I identified a previously unrecognized lunar sidereal cycle. In consideration of Grofe's recent work on eclipses and Bolon Yokte', this led me to looking at related lunar phenomenon such as eclipses, and I subsequently found an eclipse near the May 12, 709 AD date. Pursuing this further, I found a 65-year eclipse pattern that places total lunar eclipses at the dark rift / Crossroads on eclipses visible over Mesoamerica between (at least) 514 AD and 774 AD. April 5, 2012.

"The Astronomy of the 2012 Text from Block V, La Corona." June 29, 2012. The existence of a second 2012 date reference was annouced by the La Corona Archaeological Project on June 28, 2012. The use of the 2012 date was described merely as a "literary device." This essay explores what kind of literary device it is, drawing from the precedent of the Tortuguero Monument 6 "2012" text.

"A Step-by-Step Guide to the 2012 Inscription from La Corona." July 5, 2012. A detailed follow-up to the previous preliminary analysis, with charts. It includes my censored post to the project epigrapher's Maya Decipherment blog, in which I attempted to discuss astronomy as an interpretive aid to hieroglyphic decipherment. This essay demonstrates that astronomy is relevant to understanding why the Calakmul king Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' referenced 2012 in the La Corona inscription.

"How to Assess and Understand a Maya Hieroglyphic Inscription." July 8, 2012. This essay takes a look at another hieroglyphic inscription that illuminates how Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' desired to frame his royal identity by showing astronomical relations of his birthday. The rhetorical strategy he employed was astronomically based, and this is congruent with what Lord Jaguar did on Tortuguero Monument 6. Yuknoom's ideological association with the "Venus cycle / Quetzalcoatl mythology" is here linked to his birthday as well as a solstice date, suggesting an analogy to the Maize God's solstice-time rebirth. These concepts map nicely on to his asserted connection to the 2012 solstice period-ending date through his birthday astronomy and the 9.13.0.0.0 date on Block V.

A previous piece that is relevant to the above three essays is: "Commentary on Stuart and Houston's Study of Maya Place Names." September, 1995. This early essay discusses how Maya hieroglyphs can contain references to astronomy. But this information is easily overlooked by epigraphers using a limited approach who assume that the locations of "mythological placenames" are purely imaginary and do not, or cannot, belong to an astronomical topography. This original essay of 1995 was adapted for publication as Appendix 4 in my 1998 book Maya Cosmogenesis 2012.

"The Maya Calendar Conundrum." November 13, 2012. Here is a brief presentation of an unsolved conundrum, involving math and astronomy. Why does the 13-Baktun cycle have 1,872,000 days? The answer may b stranger than we can conceive.

"2012 in Retrospect." February 1, 2013. This piece is included here because it puts into perspective my well-documented (and ongoing) research into 2012 that is the focus of The Center for 2012 Studies, in the aftermath of the passing of December 21, 2012. For most writers who wrote on 2012, it is now an expired topic. In comparison, my work to reconstruct how the ancient Maya thought 2012 (which has been my modus operandi for over twenty years) continues without pause as new evidence is identified. As of April 2013, I am preparing two new studies of the astronomy in Maya inscriptions, one on Copan Stela C and one on Palenque Temple XXI.

"Comments on the Symbolism of the Holmul Frieze." August, 2013. Here we have the king sitting on the underworld portal at the cosmic crossroads. Of course, this has nothing to do with the Dark Rift and the Crossroads of the Milky Way and the ecliptic (being sarcastic here).

"2012ology." December 5, 2013. I coined the term 2012ology in 2003, and used it in my introduction to Geoff Stray's book Beyond 2012 (2005). This is what it means.

"Did the Creators of the Long Count fix their
2012 cycle-ending to the Galactic Alignment?" June 7, 2014. This essay consists of three parts. First, I review Michael Grofe's comments in his 2003 study of the inscribed bones from Tikal, which has been freely posted since 2011 on the Maya Exploration Center website. Second, and as an extension of his comments and arguments, I present additional complimentary evidence and argument to address the question of this essay's title: Did the creators of the Long Count fix their
2012 cycle-ending to the Galactic Alignment? Third, I present a related excerpt from my essay written for the Benfer & Adkins archaeoastronomy anthology.

My "Comments on the 'Great Return' Essay of Barbara MacLeod and Mark Van Stone". August 2014. In their essay (published in Zeitschrift für Anomalistik in mid-2012) we find a rare acknowledgement of my contributions, as well as discussions throughout of key ideas related to my reconstruction work on 2012 (the dark rift, the Milky Way, precession, the Galactic Center). I responded to an invitation by the authors for them to be "persusaded" regarding knowledge of the precession of the equinoxes during the pre-Classic formulation of the Long Count calendar (see next item).

"Two Possible Scenarios." August 2014. My position derives from a logical understanding of the relative merit of two possible scenarios. I invited the scholars who extended to invitation to be "persuaded" to choose which one of the following scenarios seems most likely — or provide some other scenario or argument. After a month elapsed, for the convenience of the scholars involved I also provided an audio recording of the above piece (MP3 file).

Announcement: "Lord Jaguar’s 2012 Sacrifice: Astrotheology and Magical Invocations
in a 7th-century Maya Inscription." A piece outlined in 2011 and written in early 2014, to be published in Clavis: Journal of Occult Arts, Letters and Experience (Volume 3, November 2014).

"The How and Why of 2012 Revisited". (May 23, 2014). One from the archives! My original "How and Why of 2012" article (December 1994) with new comments, notes, and the letter I wrote to Linda Schele in May of 1994.

"Frank Waters on 2012:
Addendum to his 1975 book Mexico Mystique". September 5, 2014. In researching the legacy of Frank Waters, I discovered an essay he wrote in the late 1980s that was published posthumously in an anthology edited by his wife Barbara. It provides some striking comments and an update on his thinking about the 13-Baktun cycle ending.

"The Astronomy of Three Dates in the Xultun Tables." October 2, 2014. Based on the proposals in an essay by Aveni and the Brickers, I point out how the two Crossroads (of the Milky Way and the ecliptic) are the overlooked celestial reference points for the eclipse and Mars alignments they identified.

"Copan Stela C: Sun King in the Creation Place." October 29, 2014. A clarification of my discovery of, and two early publications on, the astronomy of the dedication date of Copan Stela C (November 29, 711 AD), and how I suggested further investigation.

"Andrew Collins, Ronald Wells,
and the Cygnus Rift Alignment". December 1, 2014. Compiled from previous exchanges and my email of September 17, 2014. Having read Wells' original essays, I can identify and clarify a murky area in his Cygnus Rift-solstice alignment theory that was adapted by Andrew Collins. Clarity and distinctions are important for understanding how this relates to the galactic alignment of era-2012.

I am collecting many items of research into an Occasional Notes archive. About
eighteen of these are relatively short items already completed but never
posted or published. As I prepare them as PDFs they will be posted below.

All writings are Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved. John Major Jenkins. Not to be duplicated, digitally mirrored on another Internet site, or compiled for free or sale elsewhere or on any medium without the written permission of the author.